MILAN — Vittorio Missoni, head of the family owned Missoni fashion business, and his wife, Maurizia Castiglioni, were aboard a plane that disappeared off the radar on Friday near the tourist archipelago of Los Roques, Venezuela.

According to Nestor Reverol, Venezuela’s minister for justice and home affairs,
the small twin-engine airplane, which took off from Los Roques headed to the Simon Bolivar International airport in Maiquetia, about 13 miles from downtown Caracas, sent out its last signals about 10 nautical miles from Los Roques before disappearing.

Missoni, the 58-year-old son of Ottavio and Rosita Missoni, and his wife were on vacation in Venezuela with four Italian friends, and two of them were traveling on the missing plane as well. The Britten-Norman BN-2 aircraft had two crew members.

A number of boats and a couple of Venezuelan Navy planes immediately started conducting the search, which will resume today after having been temporally interrupted during the night.

So sad. Five years ago eight Italians disappeared in the same place, and the plane or their bodies were never found.

That's odd; is it treacherous terrain or known for bad pockets of weather?

Anyhow, doesn't bode well. Wishing the best.

__________________Fashion: Don’t you recognize me? Death: You should know that I don’t see very well and I can’t wear glasses. Fashion: I’m Fashion, your sister. Death: My sister? Fashion: Yes. You and I together keep undoing and changing things down here on earth although you go about it in one way and I another. Giacomo Leopardi, “Dialogue Between Fashion and Death.”abridged